Years before a car ever is on the market there starts a process. Foremost among them is "voice of the customer". Surveys are made of current customers and potential ones to find out what they wanted out of a car. (To keep the reader interested, let's talk about my time with Corvette). After the platform manager fully evaluates the value, cost and payback of all the "wants" then the process opens to styling.
Within the engineering studios in seclusion, the styling studio, under the direction of a concept artist or engineer creates what they believe to be the "perfect" style. It is formed into clay, often with multiple samples, and periodically the chief design engineer and those in charge of marketing review the clay models, provide input and finally a style which most pleases is selected. Once the outside form is selected the engineering groups begin designing the "guts" to the car: the drive-train, the interior, the shell covering what's inside, safety features, the electrical system and the system processor.
All the engineers who do their part, design their portion according to what the customer wants from the "voice of the customer survey" (VOC Survey), what product managers selected, what the stylists envisioned and what is cost feasible to do. Marketing ensures that the end product meets the VOC and cost accounting disperses the money delegated by the product platform staff.
As each designer does their part, upper management guides and approves it at each stage. Each and every feature is intricately designed to do the intended job. As all the design is completed, it is processed by another group of engineers (including the assembly plant - me) who endeavor to build the Corvette to "design intent". Nothing is left to fate. Everything is planned. The finished Corvette is all created to design intent.
When the design is completed as it was intended, at a later time an "operating manual" is written. Nowadays the marketing people also include a c.d. to be more visual in their instructions; to make design intent more clear. Once the final product is done, oftentimes the operating manual and even the design intent is added to the internet, so that Corvette owners and garages have all the facts necessary for keeping their car running and running to "design intent".
That's a long introduction, but it is meaningful! The Corvette didn't "just happen". It was planned. Someone wanted it to be built and that person had to be of a stature and position to make it happen. That person had authority! Not only did the authority want to please the customer, but he wanted something in exchange. There was a motive for it all!
Humans "just didn't happen" either. There was an authority who wanted us to be and wants us to continue to exist. Like the Corvette Platform Manager, this person who desired humanity had the power to make it happen. With the desire to have us there was a plan!
Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV) "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps"Mankind was planned. God did the planning. God did a mental Gantt Chart. There were steps to the plan. God knew what he was doing, but why?
Isaiah 43:7 (ESV) "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”It appears that the reason man was created is to glorify God. God is beyond our thoughts, but it would appear that he wanted companionship and adoration. Likewise, he didn't want to share it with pretenders to his throne!
Exodus 20:5a "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God..."We now can see the VOC. God is the Engineering Manager, the stylist, the engineer, the process engineer, the builder and the CUSTOMER. God, the Engineer, built man for himself by himself to please his "voice". When "The Word" or "The Voice" appears in the Bible, it's God's personality later incarnated and "called" Emmanuel and Jesus.
Genesis 3:8a "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day..."John Chapter 1 gets one thing straight. This "voice" walking in the Garden of Eden is Emmanuel! This is the "voice of the customer" asking why what he designed chose to be changed beyond his authority! The computer this Engineer implanted within his creation went awry. It failed to operate as planned. God had told Adam what he must do to perform as expected and Adam "stood in the rain" too long, so to speak, and shorted his circuits.
Let's move back a little. Before man was corrupted God had a vision. He was the Stylist for Adam his Corvette. Here's what God styled:
Genesis 1:26 (ESV) "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."Who is "our". Who was God referring to when he made man "in our image"? As was mentioned before, there was a "plan" and God's plan all along was for a Savior. God knew what Jesus would be. He knew every hair of his head and every matter in his brain. God designed man in the image of Jesus, not the other way around! Also, man was created with a spirit. He was created in the image of another of God's personalities, the Holy Spirit! Man will never be as God, but within us resides a vacancy for future plans. We are all pre-ordained to have that vacancy filled with God's Spirit. Adam was created perfect. He had that vacancy filled, but when Adam spiritually died that "cup" became empty. Yes, Adam was created perfect and is the image of God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Stylists in the Corvette design studios use clay to provide a model for what they envisioned would make the customer happy. God skipped a step. He made man of the dust of the ground, never needing a model, because God is perfect! He knew what he wanted and built man "to suit" his needs, the Customer.("Adam" even means red clay!) Corvette personnel often use the expression "turn the clay into a Corvette"! God did that just that!
When Corvette's are designed it's to please the customer. Adam was to please the ultimate Customer, God, but to please him, Adam had a purpose.
Genesis 1:26b "And let them((mankind) have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”We were designed to please God. The VOC told us that it was our "design intent" to have dominion over everything. Mankind is charged with being good stewards of what he created. We are told also that Adam was to tend the garden. That garden was more than The Garden of Eden, but to tend to Jesus. He was to have dominion over the world, but he was to tend to it using an instruction manual, at first oral instructions and as the product matures, an instruction manual was to be provide. That was part of "the plan"!
Man was created perfect. Mankind was intended to be immortal. As some Corvettes never die, man was meant to be forever! Our structural integrity was sound and our computer system to implement dominion was without flaw. If bad mechanics stayed away from the product, not fixing what doesn't need fixed", man would "run" forever. However, an insolent mechanic who was given levity to the garage started tampering with a perfect machine. The mechanic said "Eve, you'n Adam need afixin'!" and Eve bought that line and convinced Adam. "Adam", she said, "we have a design flaw! We don't have reason and we're not perfect for God's smarter than we are!". They then let the bad mechanic fix what didn't need fixing and he messed it up! Cars died that day! Mankind died that day!
Genesis 5:5 "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."Corvettes are designed for many years of service. That's what the customers want. However, eventually material things disintegrate and circuits short out. If a bad mechanic gets hold of the Corvette it will die quickly! Likewise man is the same! Although God granted Adam a long "life cycle" he eventually died! All Corvettes will die! All men, since Adam was tampered with, will too die! However, with God's perfect design man's life cycle is meant to be forever!
Let's jump head a little. Some people restore Corvette's and extend their life cycle. Some Corvettes will be around forever, or as long as physical things exist. At some time, though, all Corvette's will return to the dust from which they came. Likewise, man will too! We are all "born to die" as Corvettes are "expected to die" even as they're conceived! Part of God's plan is that there is a "good" mechanic out there who can fix otherwise dead "Corvettes". Mankind can have an "infinite life cycle":
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.The "good" mechanic (and only God is good; Matthew 19:17a) offers free service.
Romans 5:18 "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."Yes, Jesus gives our tired bodies a gift: We are "made right" (overhauled) by him and will live forever! He's the "good mechanic" and Jesus is the only fixer. There is no other. If anyone allows another mechanic to work on our bodies, that person is a "bad mechanic" and just as Adam died we too shall die... eternal death.
2 Peter 2 "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.""Damnable heresies" are redacted words in the "operation manual". Sometimes the "bad" mechanic will actually change the words in the manual or write a new manual. He still leaves in some "good" mechanic wisdom, but skews "repair" by introducing unneeded or ineffectual repairs! Yes, the "bad" mechanic is still alive. He's the same one who misled Eve. He's one bad mechanc with an attitude. Whatever the Good Mechanic says is right, he twists the instructions, just as he did way back then when the prototype Adam was created!
Did I mention prototype? When cars are built the first ones are called prototypes. They are built with temporary parts to see if design intent is met and effective. Adam was the prototype of all mankind!
1 Corinthians 15:45 "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam (Jesus) was made a quickening spirit."Adam was a sort of prototype for Jesus too, but Jesus had something Adam didn't have. His spirit was alive. Since we were made in the image of Jesus, Adam was a prototype for all mankind. He quickly failed that phase of the project and God adjusted his plan. He provided a perfect model who he made a living perfect prototype. All mankind are to be like that alive prototype. We're to be like Jesus! Whereas, the first prototype had flaws and died, the new prototype, there all along, was flawless.
Prototypes are meant to test the product. Prototype Corvettes are run test laps and endurance runs. Drivers try to make them fail and then make the failures right. Our prototype never failed:
Psalm 136:1 "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."Jesus was tested in the desert and on the mountain top. The "bad" mechanic offered him much if he only failed once. Satan was testing the prototype! God allowed that so that The Prototype could feel what we feel, and if it was to fail, it would be here! Jesus, the "Good Mechanic" never failed. That Mechanic fixed many of his fellow men with a miraculous hand. Many came to believe in the "Good Mechanic". He is the best of the best! We can rely on him!
Corvette owners are given an "operation manual". It tells the owner how to drive the car for best performance, what to avoid doing and how to maintain it's manufactured condition. If the owner follows the instructions therein, that Corvette will have a long life!
Early on, God did not hand out written instruction manuals. He told his early creation what to do verbally. It seems that man conveniently misunderstood and made excuses. God didn't blame them for not taking care of their "car", but thought it wise to write it all down! Moses became the Chief Mechanic. God took him upon the mountain and wrote down ten points for longevity. All ten points amounted to the Creator and his creation. Just as Corvette owners adore Duntov, we are to love God. If you'll remember the design intent, man's role was to glorify God! We are designed to adore our Creator. Duntov wanted owners to adore his creation! God is no different!
They said nobody could improve upon God's design. So God himself came back and gave a new improved opportunity. Since God's Vette had failed,thanks to false information, he sent the perfect mechanic to fix that. Jesus brought the "owner's manual" alive and even added to that manual. He didn't cancel out the original instructions. He just made it easier to maintain!
What was missing from the originals owner's manual that we might need a new edition? Nothing! It was implied, but sort of hidden. Due to all the instructions in the manual people missed the design intent. We were to tend to the garden! God said that, but man misunderstood. Tending to the garden is love:
Galatians 5:14 "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."People took care of their own Corvette. They loved it and cherished it! However, people were so enthralled with their own Vette that they failed to love the one that others had. In fact it didn't have to be a Corvette. Corvette owners failed to love those who drove old clunkers and even dangerous drivers. We merely took our own Corvette's out for a drive and showed off what we had. What we had been given became our idol, replacing the glory we were designed for! We were beautiful Corvettes on the outside, but we had the mechanics of an army tank and our microprocessor rebelled and looked at Jezebels and their gods. We neglected the "Duntov" who created our bodies!
To ensure longevity and avoid stalling out or even going to the eternal rust piles, we must always turn to who Created and saved us. Our owner's manual is the Bible! If we follow it we may have problems, but the promise is that The Good Mechanic will keep us in tune. We may not see him, but he's always with us. He Comforts us when our engine stalls our our plugs misfire! He's Holy and is with us in Spirit. He's the Good Mechanic still with us here on earth!
People love Corvette's and idolize Duntov. Likewise, we are to love God and if we do, we'll follow his commands. He tells us how to treat our Corvette's in his owner's manual and if we want a durable Vette, we'd better operate within the design intent!
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